Carilion First in the State to Adopt eCR for COVID-19

We were the first health care system in Virginia to activate electronic case reporting (eCR) for COVID-19 after joining the nationwide eCR Now initiative, led in part by the CDC.

By automatically creating and sending case reports to public health agencies, eCR saves valuable time—for our providers and for the public health officials involved in case investigation and contact tracing.

We can now easily share data through eCR, giving public health agencies a more complete, real-time picture of COVID-19's spread in our region. 

Here's how it works:

Interested in more details? This video from the CDC has the scoop:

We activated eCR on Nov. 3, 2020. We adopted eCR quickly because it:

• Eliminates our care providers from having to manually report patient data. 
• Securely transfers our patient and clinical information to public health agencies for disease tracking, case management and contact tracing.
• Helps us to provide more complete patient data (including demographics, comorbidities, medications and other treatment) to public health agencies. 
• Helps public health officials act quickly on case management and outbreak response.

And while right now we're all focused on meeting the challenge at hand—COVID-19—eCR is also useful for other reportable conditions, so it will continue to save time for our care givers and help keep our community healthier over the long-term. 

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For more information, contact Steve Morgan, M.D., Chief Medical Information Officer, at samorgan@carilionclinic.org.